Steve Galicia
Rhetoric and composition
Discourse community Response
There are many different types of discourse communities around us and we have been part of them for
so long but we haven’t noticed. Also many of us consider writing a chore and something that we dislike
and try to avoid but we use writing on an everyday basis. However, we haven’t noticed how often we
use writing in our daily lives because we don’t consider these writings as a chore. The writing ties in
together with the different types of discourse communities that we are involved in. There are four main
discourse communities: civic, professional, personal, and academic and they all contain a form of writing
genre whether it is by e-mail or text and even Facebook chat. There are many differences as well as
similarities among the diversity of communities that exist. The main difference between these
communities is how they are structured and the set of rules that hold the community together.
At some point in our lives we all become part of an academic discourse community whether it was a
course or a class. An academic discourse community has a simple goal, to expand your knowledge about
anything that you deem necessary or interesting. Most of the time the audience of this discourse
community would be the students enrolled in the class or school. An example of this discourse
community would be my pre- calculus class. This community is used to expand our knowledge about
math and it is normally used as a stepping stone to reach a higher level class such as calculus I. This
discourse community is unique from other courses found in the academic world for it has its own form
of language that cannot be found anywhere else such as “I want you to find the domain and range of a
parabola and then find where it intercepts on the X axis using the quadratic formula.” This form of
language is very specific to math and cannot be applied to another discourse community. Like every
community there are also special forms of communication or genera’s such as e-mail, phone, and a
website called “web assign.” The overall rules of this discourse community would be to always complete
your work on time and not to cheat and all it takes is to sign up for the course in order to join and take
these advantages.
Another discourse community that is very important would be the civic. The civic discourse community
ranges from clubs to your neighborhood watch or a church group. The purpose for this discourse
community would be to accomplish a goal that would benefit the community or your organization and
the people around you. The members of this discourse community would be those who are part of the
group or organization. For example, let’s take the Da Vinci high school for the science and the arts
student council. The members would be those who make up the student council such as the president,
vice president, secretary, treasurer, sponsors, and the member’s. To become a member you must show
up to the student council meetings that are held in the high school and talk to the one who is in charge.
These members use writing to communicate with one another through documents or any form of
writing. The genera in this community commonly used are essays, texts, and emails. The purpose for the
writing in this discourse community would be to communicate with organizations and with student
council members to perform some form of community service. The special form of communication the
members of this community use has some similarities to the professional discourse communities
because you communicate professionally but not to the extent of being a professional community. For
example “Hey do you know if the PPR went through the school administration for those supplies that we
need for the Susan G. Komen race for the cure event we have on Saturday?” This would be the type of
communication that would be used in the community.
Everyone also has a personal discourse community; this community is made up of friends or family or
could be composed of both. The main purpose of this type of community is for us to surround ourselves
with people we are comfortable with and see as family or friends. Many times these communities are
the ones who we spend the most time with. The different types of writing used by this community are
usually through the genres of text and emails and sometimes even written letters to communicate with
one another. A very distinct characteristic about this discourse community is the type of language that is
used in it. For example when I am talking to a friend I would normally say “hey what’s up dude?” The
communication is very informal but the language changes based on what member you are talking to.
When conversing with a parent you will not say “what’s up?” you will most likely say “hello how are you
today?” Becoming part of this discourse community is quite unique depending on the members because
being “admitted” to the group varies from group to group. There are two ways you can join either by
being born into the community or being accepted into it by the leader.
And finally a very important discourse community is the professional one. This discourse community is
made up of people who are working for a common goal in a working environment. This would include
any office, large organization or important group that is doing a project for a large corporation or
company. The purpose for this community would be to accomplish something or earn an income. There
are many forms of writing in this community, the genera ranges from e-mail, text, important documents,
memos, and reports. Also you might find forms of media sometimes. For example when I was the chief
engineer in a NASA program called InSPIRESS we would communicate through written reports and the
language was at a higher level than in any other discourse community. For example “Excuse me, I need
assistance calculating the launch of the payload and know if the thermal couple will affect the mass
spectrometer upon impact on the surface of Venus.” Becoming part of this community is quite difficult
because you need to be part of a STEM school in the state of Alabama or attend the Da Vinci high school
for the science and the arts in El Paso, Texas.
There are two things that can be learned from the discourse communities in which we engage on a
regular basis; writing is the foundation for communicating with one another and completing a task
efficiently and effectively. And secondly we can see that even though there are many differences within
these communities they are very similar as well because of the structure that they take. So what types
of discourse communities are you a part of and how do you use writing on a daily basis?